Pilot hyperlocal news and features site Standfirst Online, run by media students at Bournemouth University, has reported a successful first few weeks – with long-form journalism proving to be a popular product on the platform.

Co-supervisor Chindu Sreedharan oversees the site, which is aimed at the university community. He told Journalism.co.uk that the platform had allowed the students to tackle online content in different ways.

Over the three editions, they managed to go beyond the inverted pyramid, and explore other forms of reportage, other forms of writing – literary journalism, for instance. Again, when you look at it, that’s quite unique – having long-form journalism in a hyperlocal venture. For our launch, we had a strong cover story in an in-depth interview with the outgoing VC Paul Curran. In Edition 2, the students put together a very strong profile of Professor John Vinney, the new VC. And for our Edition 3, we had this wonderful piece of experiential journalism from Geo Willis.